HAYWARD — A jury Monday afternoon found Loida Cruz guilty of second-degree murder for killing her ex-husband with 48 stab wounds during an argument at the couple’s Union City home in 2002.

Cruz, 42, faces a prison term of 16 years to life for the conviction, which includes a special circumstance for using a kit-chen knife as a deadly weapon.

Judge Ronni B. MacLaren is scheduled to sentence Cruz at 9 a.m. June 21 at the Hayward Hall of Justice.

Prosecutor John Mifsud had called for a first-degree murder conviction, but he said he was not disappointed by the verdict.

“It was a just verdict,” he said. “There certainly was a basis to find first-degree, but given all the circumstances, they could fairly find second-degree, which is what they did.”

If Cruz had been convicted of first-degree murder, she would have faced a sentence of 26 years to life.

Cruz wept and embraced her attorney, Stuart Hanlon, when the verdict was read.

“I’m extremely disappointed,” Hanlon said as he left the courtroom with members of the Cruz family. “I think it was a manslaughter.”

Hanlon did not dispute the fact his client killed ex-husband Manuel Boquiren, 55, at their Hall Ranch Parkway house on June 1, 2002. But he had two experts testify that Cruz suffered from borderline personality disorder at the time of the slaying.

The couple had divorced
about six years earlier but had begun living together again with their young son about a year before the killing.

During his closing argument, Hanlon said the evidence supported a verdict of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter rather than murder.

With the deadly-weapon special circumstance, the maximum prison sentence would have been 12 years for voluntary manslaughter or five years for involuntary manslaughter.

The 12-person jury deliberated for a day and a half after the monthlong trial, which included testimony from police, experts and members of Cruz’s and Boquiren’s families.

Witnesses described the couple’s troubled two-year marriage, which was marked with many instances of domestic violence. Several times, police were called and Cruz was taken to the hospital either for injuries or for psychiatric observation to determine if she was a threat to herself or others, according to testimony.

However, Boquiren’s family members testified that Cruz was the aggressor in fights they witnessed.

The prosecution also introduced into evidence a tape-recording taken by Boquiren to use during the couple’s acrimonious divorce proceedings in the mid-1990s. During an argument in Tagalog captured on the tape, Cruz repeatedly threatened to kill Boquiren.

There was no evidence of domestic violence from when the couple reunited in 2001 until the day of the killing.

The argument that day stemmed from a surprise 80th birthday party that Boquiren’s family was planning for his mother, Sabina Boquiren, according to testimony. Cruz opposed the party being held at the couple’s house and argued with Boquiren about it the night before the slaying.

The fight continued the next day. A tearful Cruz testified that she blacked out when most of the stab wounds were inflicted on Boquiren, which the defense experts said was consistent with borderline personality disorder.

Mifsud, however, argued that Cruz simply couldn’t come up with a good explanation for stabbing Boquiren about four dozen times.

Perhaps the most poignant testimony came from Cruz’s pre-teenage son, who said he was in his room watching cartoons at the time of the killing.

“I’m just sorry for the family and a son growing up without both parents,” Hanlon said Monday.

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